School budgets hide the fat

Unbelievable. The Observer-Tribune has finally seen fit to
criticize the Board of Education in Chester in "Busing should stay,
politicking should end," May 31. But this editorial doesn't even
begin to expose what is terribly wrong with how our schools are
run. To begin, recall that an outside, impartial auditor with no ax
to grind recommended a $1.4 million cut in spending. This
independent review proves just how bloated the defeated school
budget really was. The fact that the town councils h ad only the
courage to go with a $465,000 reduction is not to their credit. As
to courtesy busing, nobody should be surprised that it's now held
hostage by an immature school board. Remember, our Boards of
Education have historically acted more like lap dogs for the
education establishment than guardians for the community.

And, here's how they play the game and jack your taxes up in the
process. Prior to going before the voters, budgets are cynically
formulated to protect the interests of the education establishment
at all cost. That is, the fat, which is typically overstaffing and
high salaries, is protected by contracts and agreements while
things like educational programs, sports, and courtesy busing are
left exposed.

The idea here is two fold. Budgets structured this way can be
presented to the public as having little discretionary spending in
them. Technically, this may be t rue, but it doesn't change the
fact that the budgets are still extremely excessive. Then, should
these bloated budgets be defeated, pain is inflicted on the
children and the community, not the education
establishment.

The threat of this pain is used to motivate parents with
children in the school to do all they can to pass the budgets even
though many know that the overall spending is too high. And should
the budget go down to defeat, the pain is there to motivate those
directly affected to loudly agitate for a negation of the elect ion
result.

There is only one way to get quality education at a reasonable
cost. It is to stop electing lap dogs to boards of education. But
this won't happen until the school elections are moved to the
general ballot in November. For that is when the entire community
votes, meaning the special interest groups can't unduly influence
the results.

Watch this discussion.Stop watching this discussion.

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In recent weeks, Long Hill Township and Watchung Borough passed ordinances allowing their police departments to be able to apply for surplus equipment from the Department of Defense. Long Hill recently procured a Humvee to use in times of flooding, which Watchung states as the reason they are getting into the program. However, in cities around the country, police forces have used the program to obtain military gear, such as weapons and armor.
For more background, go to the link below
http://www.newjerseyhills.com/echoes-sentinel/news/watchung-police-department-hopes-to-receive-equipment-from-department-of/article_12ad002a-92b3-5449-a2cc-4b2cf0ce4339.html